Events

March 3:
Classes End - 1st block:
Last day of class for first block.
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March 3:
VALIC One-On-One Counseling Sessions:

Let VALIC help you make financial decisions that are right for you. Schedule an appointment today with a consultant to discuss your personal financial situation on a confidential basis. They will be available to discuss how to help meet you financial goals with products, such as mutual funds and annuities, or other financial matters you have. Sessions start at 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and will be held on the 3rd floor of the Wine Price building, North Campus, 752 Ott Street.

This talk examines the history, performance culture and cultural function of southern white gospel music within evangelical Christian experience, focusing particularly on how white fundamentalist and very conservative evangelicals collectively and individually use vernacular sacred song to make sense of their given fields of experience in a post-modern pluralist society. The talk is built on research conducted as part of a John W. Kluge Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Library of Congress and includes discussion of the challenges of conducting ethnographic and archival research into contemporary Christian fundamentalism in the U.S.

Faculty participants will make progress toward:

Appreciating the role of sacred music in fundamentalism’s relationship to secular society,

Exploring archival artifacts from the religious music culture of U.S. evangelicalism, and

Gaining perspective on the challenges and opportunities of the secular humanist study of strict religious cultures.

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following scholarship area outcomes:

Appreciating the diverse forms, purposes, and communication modes of scholarship in higher education,and

Practicing the integration of scholarship with teaching and other career aspirations.

One good turn deserves another.

Come talk with us! JMU students are invited to enjoy causal conversation with our Hiroshima University guests in another special English Conversation Club meeting! We'll be talking about how JMU stacks up to life in Hiroshima.

Men, we want you to be part of a project to create a healthy masculinity marketing campaign on campus, in an effort to increase the number of men who join The Men’s Program, a student organization. Come share your thoughts with us at any of our focus groups. Food and beverages will be provided. Stop in for something to eat and share what you have to say. The focus groups will run between one and one and a half hours.

Workshop Description: If you aspire to be one of those leaders whose team works tirelessly to get great results, this course is for you! By attending this session adapted from Simon Sinek’s book, Leaders Eat Last, you will learn practical leadership behaviors that motivate others and get results. The material is inspired by the practice of Marine Corp officers who intentionally move to the back of the chow line during battle to let the junior soldiers eat first. You will find the session to be very engaging and mildly interactive. Join us and fill your leadership toolbox with even more great tools.

Dr. Larry Burton will initiate discussion at opening statement of "MOOC'S as an educational innovation". He will reference Prof. Winner view on " creartive destruction and destructive creativity". The discussion will follow

Drs. Mary Thompson and Brooks Hefner, both associate professors of English at JMU, join the program. Thompson says that two kinds of books, mommy memoirs and mother-daughter memoirs, are tackling the tough topic of abortion in new ways. And, during the 1910s and 1920s, the question of whether one was “highbrow” or “lowbrow” became a concern in the minds of modernist Americans. Hefner says this “brow anxiety” dominated the career of Willard Huntington Wright, who fancied himself an intellectual aristocrat while secretly writing a series of wildly popular detective stories under the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine.

March 4:
TAG Spring Event : Wednesday, March 4, 2015: The Technology Alumni Group is hosting their Spring Event.
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March 4:
JMU STC HTML/CSS Workshop:

JMU Society for Technical Communication

Location: Harrison Hall, room 2245

Dr. Angela Crow will be conducting a basic HTML/CSS workshop . This workshop will allow those with little or no knowledge of HTML/CSS to get acquanted with the language. Attending can also serve as a review for those who have previous experience. Resources for further learning will be provided.

All students are welcome. You do not need to be a WRTC major or minor to attend.

Let TIAA-CREF help you make financial decisions that are right for you. Schedule an appointment today with a consultant to discuss your personal financial situation on a confidential basis. They will be available to discuss how to help meet you financial goals with products, such as mutual funds and annuities, or other financial matters you have. Sessions start at 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and will be held on the 3rd floor of the Wine Price building, North Campus, 752 Ott Street.

Workshop Description: Lack of effective accountability is the number one issue holding back performance in organizations today. Improving accountability at every level has proven to directly impact the positive outcomes of teams in the work place and beyond. Come learn how effective accountability leads to the execution of outcomes, not just talk or apologies, and explore a process that is easily learned and implemented to achieve effective accountability.

Participants in this workshop will learn to:

Demonstrate the skills needed to implement accountability with results

Develop methods to prepare for the accountability process and discussion

Determine what it takes to get “success” for all parties in the outcomes

Writers' Lockdowns encourage faculty writers to dive into projects with concentrated time and effort. Held on Monday afternoons and Friday mornings, these mini-lockdowns will help create a regular writing pattern during the academic year. Peace of mind provided -- faculty writers provide the words. Coffee is available for purchase at Starbucks.

Note: Consultations must be requested in advance by emailing cfi@jmu.edu.

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following faculty community outcomes:

Practicing the integration of writing as aspect of career

Advancing writing projects, and

Increasing a sense of belonging to a writing community.

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following scholarship area outcome:

Vertical movement of the endangered James Spinymussel (Pleurobemacollina) in response to floods in different temperatures and substrates

Dorottya Boisen

All residence halls will close at 6:00 pm on Friday, March 6, 2015. Halls will reopen on Sunday, March 15 at 12:00 pm.

Check Out Information

Before leaving for Spring break, please do the following:

Lock windows; close roller shades or blinds.

Unplug electrical appliances, including radios, TVs, clocks and computers. Refrigerators and aquariums can remain plugged in. However, please be aware that power may go off in halls due to maintenance work or unplanned outages.

March 7:
Spring Break: Parking regulations are enforced 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Including summer sessions, breaks and holidays.MORE >

March 7:
Executive Leadership MBA Information Session:

Do you desire to accelerate your career path? Aspire to hold a high-level management position? Want to unleash your leadership potential?

JMU’s College of Business has the perfect program for you. If you are a mid-level manager with a minimum five years of professional work experience and interested in acquiring skills and abilities necessary for successful transition into C-Suite level positions, the Executive Leadership MBA may be just what you need.

Our program is not a general part-time MBA; nor is it a traditional executive MBA. Our curriculum has a strong and highly engaging leadership focus while providing technical skills and abilities necessary for successful transition into high-level positions.

What makes us unique?

Small cohort sizes ensure high level of interaction with professors and other students

Synchronous online instruction paired with Saturday residencies once per month in McLean, VA make us convenient and well suited for busy life-styles

Do you desire to accelerate your career path? Aspire to hold a high-level management position? Want to unleash your leadership potential?

JMU’s College of Business has the perfect program for you. If you are a mid-level manager with a minimum of five years of professional work experience and interested in acquiring skills and abilities necessary for successful transition into C-Suite level positions, the Executive Leadership MBA may be just what you need.

Our program is not a general part-time MBA; nor is it a traditional executive MBA. Our curriculum has a strong and highly engaging leadership focus while providing technical skills and abilities necessary for successful transition into high-level positions.

What makes us unique?

Small cohort sizes ensure high level of interaction with professors and other students

Synchronous online instruction paired with Saturday residencies once per month in McLean, VA make us convenient and well suited for busy life-styles

ICAD is working with the Congolese Community of Harrisonburg to help lead discussions after a panel talk of empowering narratives from Congolese Women. The event is in recognition of International Women's Day. The panel and discussions will be followed by Congolese Food and Music into the evening.

Speaking for Change in Congo: Empowering Narratives of Congolese Women

Workshop Description: Do you have questions about retirement? If so, this session will help answer some of those. Although this program is open to anyone, it will be most helpful to those who are 50 years of age or older or are within 5 years of retirement. This program is designed to be a comprehensive introduction to important issues and concepts that every pre-retiree should become familiar with.

This course is an Open Lab, for those that have been through Cascade Overview Training and have a production login to Cascade, hosted by members of the web development team dealing with questions regarding your specific site in Cascade.

Cascade Open Lab Training will take place at the IT Training Center (JMAC4).

Location: All sessions except Session 4 will be held in the Wine Price Building on the 3rd Floor. Session 4 will meet in JMAC4, IT Training Center

Session: 1 of 5

Workshop Description: The barrage of information coming at us from multiple sources (e.g., texts, email, tweets, blogs, and alerts), coupled with the demands of our careers, are overwhelming and distracting. The sheer volume of information threatens our ability to think clearly and make wise decisions about what’s important. If we react to these stimuli without clear discernment, we fail to accomplish the goals that matter most in our professional and personal lives.

FranklinCovey’s The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity solution inspires participants to apply a process that will dramatically increase their ability to achieve life’s most important outcomes. Supported by science and years of experience, this solution not only produces a measurable increase in productivity, but also provides a renewed sense of engagement and accomplishment.

“Extraordinary productivity is not about doing more. In fact, it’s about doing less. Most of us try to do too much, and as a result we give less than our best and finest effort to those few things that really matter.” ~ The 5 Choices to Extraordinary productivity

This Multi-Session workshop will include:

Choice 1: Act on the Important
After this section, participants will use common language and skill-set for determining the difference between important, less important, and unimportant investments of time and energy.

Choice 2: Go for the Extraordinary
After this section, participants will be able to:

Redefine their key roles as transformational rather than functional, an essential condition for achieving extraordinary productivity.

Set goals to ensure fulfillment of their key roles.

Choice 3: Schedule the Big Rocks

Choice 4: Rule Your Technology
After this section, participants will be able to:

Align their technological tools – computer, smartphone, etc. – into one system to serve their productivity needs.

March 11:
Tea Time:
Tea Time is every Wednesday during semester from 2-2:45PM in Roop 103. Please join faculty and students in social time. BYO mug if you have one.
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March 12:
Advanced Electronic Editing: Using the JMU Identity System and Exploring Bias-Free Language in Editing (TD1556):

Location: JMAC4, IT Training Center

Course Description: In the first part of this session, participants will learn advanced editing tools in MS Word, such as using styles to create tables of content. Participants should be familiar with Word’s Track Changes and Comments functions. They will also edit documents based on the JMU Identity System. The second part of the session will explore bias-free language in social issues such as disability, culture, gender and sexuality.

VetLink is designed to meet the needs of veterans by providing a relaxed environment to share military, post-military, and transitional experiences with other vets. VetLink also facilitates job placement assistance, peer support, fun activities, and location of available veteran resources.

The group meets every 2nd and 4th Thursday from 6:00 PM until 8 PM at 660 South Main St, Harrisonburg, VA, 22801.

The editors of Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, in partnership with James Madison University’s Furious Flower Poetry Center, invites you to submit original unpublished essays presented at the 2014 Furious Flower conference and unpublished works of poetry for review. Selected works will appear in Obsidian’s fall 2015 double-issue edited by Meta DuEwa Jones, Keith D. Leonard (essays), and giovanni singleton (poetry). The issue is part of the journal’s yearlong anniversary celebration of more than 40 years of continuous publication.

In anticipation of the forthcoming Furious Flower anthology, this issue will highlight the poetry and scholarship of 2014 conference participants and further commemorate Obsidian’s yearlong anniversary celebration.

Curated by Outreach & Engagement's Madison Institutes in conjunction with James Madison Week, this exhibit examines the life of Dolley Madison. The exhibit will include items on loan from James Madison's Montpelier, such as Dolley's Bible and hand-written biography of James Madison, as well as artifacts from the university's own collection.

Engaging Community: Creating Change

Note: This event is located at the Festival Conference Center

Total Workshop Time: This is an all day event.

Pre-requisites: None

Workshop Description:

Geared toward JMU Faculty and Staff, the Diversity Conference is an all-day event located in the Festival Conference and Student Center which allows you to participate in your choice of three informational or workshop sessions. Morning refreshments, lunch, and afternoon refreshments are served. In the middle of the day, Mr. Scott Horton, the former Director of Diversity and Inclusion at IBM will speak and the IDEA, DEAP, and WOD Awards will be given out to recipients.

Geared toward JMU Faculty and Staff, the Diversity Conference is an all-day event located in the Festival Conference and Student Center which allows you to participate in your choice of three informational or workshop sessions. Morning refreshments, lunch, and afternoon refreshments are served. In the middle of the day, Mr. Scott Horton, the former Director of Diversity and Inclusion at IBM will speak and the IDEA, DEAP, and WOD Awards will be given out to recipients.

Click HERE to view the schedule and session information regarding the conference.

Writers' Lockdowns encourage faculty writers to dive into projects with concentrated time and effort. Held on Monday afternoons and Friday mornings, these mini-lockdowns will help create a regular writing pattern during the academic year. Peace of mind provided -- faculty writers provide the words. Coffee is available for purchase at Starbucks.

Note: Consultations must be requested in advance by emailing cfi@jmu.edu.

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following faculty community outcomes:

Practicing the integration of writing as aspect of career

Advancing writing projects, and

Increasing a sense of belonging to a writing community.

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following scholarship area outcome:

Co-Sponsored by the JMU Center for Genome and Metagenome Studies

Keith A. Crandall

Phylogenetics is an area of research with broad applications across disciplines. Evolutionary histories are essential tools for quantifying and characterizing biodiversity through the Tree of Life. We can also use phylogenetic approaches to study population dynamics within species and to identify evidence of natural selection both within and between species. Here we show some novel methods for estimating phylogenies through tree synthesis with underlying taxonomy. Then we use the underlying phylogeny to test hypotheses of divergence time and conservation priorities. We then show how we can use similar approaches to test similar questions (identity, geographic origin, divergence time estimation, migration rate estimation, natural selection) within the context of the evolution of infectious diseases.

March 16:
Economics Speaker Series: Alice Rivlin: Monday, March 16, 2015 | 4:00 p.m. | Madison Union Ballroom, Warren Campus Center: The College of Business welcomes guest speaker, Alice Rivlin from Brookings Institution. She will be giving a speech entitled: "Health and Health Care: Can We Improve Both at Sustainable Cost?"
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March 16:
Long, Long Journey to the Sea Opening Reception:
Please join us for the Long, Long Journey to the Sea Opening Reception in New Image Gallery.
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March 16:
Common Ground:

March 16 | 8-9pm | Madison Union 203

What do we have in common? More than we think!

Common Ground is a group program for JMU students who want to explore, evaluate, or have questions about the role of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs in their life.

It is a free, confidential, non-judgmental opportunity to connect with and engage in conversations with other students who have similar understanding and experiences with substances.

Common Ground meets Mondays in Madison Union (formerly Warren Hall) Room 203 from 8-9pm. Students can join at any point in the semester, and there is no minimum commitment for attendance.

Please contact the group facilitator Heidi Jordan in the University Health Center with any questions.

This training what was formerly a combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 training.

Cascade Overview Training will go over the philosophy of the new web publishing system, Cascade and also include a basic technical training for Cascade that will train users to enter content via content types (mainly news, events, stories and images) into Cascade and expose them to the basic fundamentals of using Cascade to publish their website.

Workshop Description: Are all accidents that occur during work hours covered under Workers Compensation? If I am injured on the job, can I go to my regular doctor, or do I have to use a specific doctor? If I was negligent and as a result was injured on the job, is the accident compensable under Workers Compensation? Plan to attend this session to learn some of the laws and regulations governing Workers Compensation and steps you need to take as an employee to insure that you are following the correct procedures in reporting incidences.

Workshop Description: Are all accidents that occur during work hours covered under Workers Compensation? If I am injured on the job, can I go to my regular doctor, or do I have to use a specific doctor? If I was negligent and as a result was injured on the job, is the accident compensable under Workers Compensation? Plan to attend this session to learn some of the laws and regulations governing Workers Compensation and steps you need to take as an employee to insure that you are following the correct procedures in reporting incidences.

Determining ways to connect students to alumni through meaningful and rewarding interactions can be a challenge. We’ll discuss different ways to make the most of these opportunities and share success stories from departments across campus. Come prepared to share your experiences and learn from others as we tackle the dos and don’t’s of creating a mentor or networking experience for our alumni.

This workshop will be co-facilitated by Carrie Combs, Director of College Engagement and Ashley Privott, Director of Alumni Relations.

Workshop Description: Determining ways to connect students to alumni through meaningful and rewarding interactions can be a challenge. We’ll discuss different ways to make the most of these opportunities and share success stories from departments across campus. Come prepared to share your experiences and learn from others as we tackle the dos and don’t’s of creating a mentor or networking experience for our alumni.

Presented by: Carrie Combs, Director of the College of Engagement and Ashley Privott, Director of Alumni Relations

Dr. Amy Goodall, associate professor of geographic science at JMU, speaks on how citizen science and recent technologies support collecting data for birds and butterflies, which is influencing knowledge and has even led to the discovery of new species. Enjoy fine, genuine Irish cuisine and brew. For information, check http://www.jmu.edu/arboretum.

Workshop Description: "I've got to go to a meeting" is a phrase that makes most people's hearts sink. It echoes with boredom, frustration and a general waste of time. And yet we all know we need meetings to discuss problems, share ideas and make decisions. Good meetings send everyone off with a sense of purpose and a feeling of accomplishment. Bad meetings leave attendees de-motivated, irritated and alienated.

Now for the really depressing part; people who run meetings badly don't improve with experience. Even worse, people who attend poorly run meetings pick up bad meeting habits. Many people genuinely don't realize they are making a mess of meetings. They aren't even aware that running meetings is a teachable, learnable skill.

In this workshop participants will:

Learn five key meeting elements

Identify specific strengths and weaknesses of their own meetings at work

Recognize the characteristics of a good meeting

Learn how to prepare for, structure and control effective meetings

Devise an action plan to improve their ability to run good face to face and online meetings

Location: All sessions except Session 4 will be held in the Wine Price Building on the 3rd Floor. Session 4 will meet in JMAC4, IT Training Center

Session: 2 of 5

Workshop Description: The barrage of information coming at us from multiple sources (e.g., texts, email, tweets, blogs, and alerts), coupled with the demands of our careers, are overwhelming and distracting. The sheer volume of information threatens our ability to think clearly and make wise decisions about what’s important. If we react to these stimuli without clear discernment, we fail to accomplish the goals that matter most in our professional and personal lives.

FranklinCovey’s The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity solution inspires participants to apply a process that will dramatically increase their ability to achieve life’s most important outcomes. Supported by science and years of experience, this solution not only produces a measurable increase in productivity, but also provides a renewed sense of engagement and accomplishment.

“Extraordinary productivity is not about doing more. In fact, it’s about doing less. Most of us try to do too much, and as a result we give less than our best and finest effort to those few things that really matter.” ~ The 5 Choices to Extraordinary productivity

This Multi-Session workshop will include:

Choice 1: Act on the Important
After this section, participants will use common language and skill-set for determining the difference between important, less important, and unimportant investments of time and energy.

Choice 2: Go for the Extraordinary
After this section, participants will be able to:

Redefine their key roles as transformational rather than functional, an essential condition for achieving extraordinary productivity.

Set goals to ensure fulfillment of their key roles.

Choice 3: Schedule the Big Rocks

Choice 4: Rule Your Technology
After this section, participants will be able to:

Align their technological tools – computer, smartphone, etc. – into one system to serve their productivity needs.

Workshop Description: We've all worked with someone who makes work impossible. From chronic complainers to idea-stealers, boundary pushers to just plain jerks, a toxic co-worker can ruin your day - and your life! The amount of time spent worrying, avoiding, raging and obsessing over toxic employees can affect performance on the job and peace at home. But it doesn't have to be that way. This workshop will explore how employees and managers can tame a toxic co-worker by setting boundaries.

In this workshop, participants will:
• Identify the role you may play in contributing to the toxic relationships you encounter
• Learn to identify toxic relationships and boundary busters
• Learn a 4-Step process that helps reduce or eliminate difficult workplace interpersonal situations

Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ full-length collection, Mule & Pear (2011), was selected for the 2012 Inaugural Poetry Award by the Black Caucus American Library Association. In it, the speakers echo and respond to some of the most important black women characters in the literature of the past 100 years. Both a poet and photographer, Griffith presents her reading in the Duke Hall Gallery Court, which willl help launch her latest book, Lighting the Shadow (2015) and showcase some of her images.

About the poet: Griffiths received her MA in English Literature from the University of Delaware and her MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of Lighting the Shadow (Four Way Books, 2015), Miracle Arrhythmia (Willow Books, 2010), The Requited Distance (The Sheep Meadow Press, 2011), and a chapbook, Memoria, Memoria (Deadly Chaps, A5, 2012). Currently, Griffiths teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York.

Parking is available in lots N4, N5 and N6 (map below) beginning at 3:30pm before the reading. Guests will not need a permit. All parking regulations for JMU students, faculty and staff will remain in effect, and students attending the event are required to park in appropriate student parking lots with a JMU parking permit.

Regular enforcement will continue in other parking lots, and you may receive a parking citation if parked in restricted lots. Parking is prohibited in specialty spaces such as Service Vehicle spaces, handicap spaces without proper permit, or expired meters. Parking is also prohibited in Fire Lanes.

Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ full-length collection, Mule & Pear (2011), was selected for the 2012 Inaugural Poetry Award by the Black Caucus American Library Association. In it, the speakers echo and respond to some of the most important black women characters in the literature of the past 100 years. Both a poet and photographer, Griffiths teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Fittingly, her reading takes place in the Duke Hall Gallery and will help launch her latest book, Lighting the Shadow (2015) and showcase some of her images in the gallery.

March 20:
Deadline for W grade or changing course credit options:
Deadline for W grade or changing course credit options (Course withdrawals or credit options changes will not be processed after the end of the course adjustment period)
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Writers' Lockdowns encourage faculty writers to dive into projects with concentrated time and effort. Held on Monday afternoons and Friday mornings, these mini-lockdowns will help create a regular writing pattern during the academic year. Peace of mind provided -- faculty writers provide the words. Coffee is available for purchase at Starbucks.

Note: Consultations must be requested in advance by emailing cfi@jmu.edu.

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following faculty community outcomes:

Practicing the integration of writing as aspect of career

Advancing writing projects, and

Increasing a sense of belonging to a writing community.

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following scholarship area outcome:

Let Fidelity help you make financial decisions that are right for you. Schedule an appointment today with a consultant to discuss your personal financial situation on a confidential basis. They will be available to discuss how to help meet you financial goals with products, such as mutual funds and annuities, or other financial matters you have. Sessions start at 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and will be held on the 3rd floor of the Wine Price building, North Campus, 752 Ott Street.

Workshop Description: The original Fred was a mail carrier who passionately loved his job and genuinely cared about the people he served. He went the extra mile and made a difference in the lives of the people he met. We have all encountered “Freds” and anyone can be a “Fred”, someone that uses their passion at work and at home to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Learn how to make a difference every day, become more successful by building strong relationships, create value for others and constantly reinvent yourself.

In this workshop participants will:

Learn the four “Fred Principles”

Learn three difference-making strategies

Learn seven B’s for relationship building

Reinvent themselves and create value for others

Develop a Fred Factor Action Plan for improving relationships using what was learned

This workshop is based on the book The Fred Factor: How Passion In Your Work And Life Can Turn The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary by Mark Sanborn and John C. Maxwell.

You already know the Starbucks story. Since 1992, its stock has risen a staggering 5,000 percent! The genius of Starbucks success lies in its ability to create personalized customer experiences, stimulate business growth, generate profits, energize employees, and secure customer loyalty-all at the same time.
The Starbucks Experience contains a robust blend of home-brewed ingenuity and people-driven philosophies that have made Starbucks one of the world's “most admired” companies, according to Fortune magazine. With unique access to Starbucks personnel and resources, Joseph Michelli discovered that the success of Starbucks is driven by the people who work there-the “partners”-and the special experience they create for each customer.

One Friday of each month is dedicated to the Professional Book Club. The Training and Development Department hosts an informal discussion led by guest facilitators from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM on a variety of professional development topics.

JMU employees are welcome to join in the conversation and can sign up through MyMadison for topics that interest them. The series is offered "a la carte." Attend all the sessions or only the discussions that most interest you.

Participants are encouraged to read the monthly selection before attending the discussion. A limited number of books are available to be checked out of the Training and Development Professional Resource Collection for a two week period. Some books are also available on audio/CD.

Workshop Description: Container gardens aren't just for flowers anymore! While they can be purely decorative and ornamental, they are also used for produce gardens and for architectural purposes. Join us as we learn about these topics, as well as plants, flowers, vegetables, and herbs most prevalent in our area and discover the most environmentally and cost efficient ways of creating our own. A "make and take" container garden will be part of this workshop!

Bully in the Ivory Tower: How Aggression and Incivility Erode American Higher Education

Several studies have examined workplace bullying in the general population or in the K-12 student population. This book examines the manifestation of workplace bullying in American Higher Education Administration. After surveying over 175 four-year colleges and universities in an independent study, Hollis confirms that workplace bullying occurs at alarming rates in higher education. Further, this study calculates the cost of employee disengagement. Staff who have been bullied either seek to separate from an institution or mentally "check out" as a way of enduring a bully. In the midst of souring tuition costs, no organization can afford the millions of dollars lost to employee disengagement due to a bully. After gathering data through surveys and several interviews with administrators in higher education, Hollis develops a model for a healthy workplace specifically for higher education, which is also applicable to the general population. The model offers solutions for the leadership and organizational level, middle managers, and for the bullies who are seeking healthier management strategies. While this book is an academic study, the writing is accessible, reflects on popular culture at times, and considers the urgency of workplace bullying in relationship to cost, potential accreditation issues, and the personal anguish of the target. The findings and solutions are appropriate for executive leadership, middle management or anyone working in higher education.

This book is written by Dr. Leah P. Hollis, the Madison Caucus' 2014 Dominion Lecturer, and is available for purchase here.

China can learn much from Japan’s economic experience. In China most farmers now receive modest cash subsidies; in Japan subsidies did not stay small, and have proven costly to both consumers and the government yet ineffective in making agriculture sustainable. China has a large, unregulated “shadow” finance sector that undermines monetary stability; in its process of financial deepening Japan successfully transformed that sector into formal financial institutions. The rapid drop in Chinese fertility will lead to an aging population; Japan’s demographic transition began in 1950, and its baby boomers have already hit retirement age. China can learn from that as it develops its own pension and healthcare systems. Finally, Japan’s transition from high to low growth has not gone well. Understanding what took place could help China avoid making the same mistakes as its own growth slows.

Dr. Michael Smitka is a professor of economics at Washington & Lee University. His specialty is in East Asia, and he has written on the Japanese automobile industry as well as other subjects.

Parking will be available in the C4 Lot and the Grace Street Parking Deck. Please contact Dr. Yongguang Hu (hu2yx@jmu.edu) or Dr. Michael Seth (sethmj@jmu.edu) with any event questions. This event was organized by the Asian Studies Program and sponsored by the Office of Cross Disciplinary Studies and Diversity Engagement.

China can learn much from Japan’s economic experience. In China most farmers now receive modest cash subsidies; in Japan subsidies did not stay small, and have proven costly to both consumers and the government yet ineffective in making agriculture sustainable. China has a large, unregulated “shadow” finance sector that undermines monetary stability; in its process of financial deepening Japan successfully transformed that sector into formal financial institutions. The rapid drop in Chinese fertility will lead to an aging population; Japan’s demographic transition began in 1950, and its baby boomers have already hit retirement age. China can learn from that as it develops its own pension and healthcare systems. Finally, Japan’s transition from high to low growth has not gone well. Understanding what took place could help China avoid making the same mistakes as its own growth slows.

Dr. Michael Smitka is a professor of economics at Washington & Lee University. His specialty is in East Asia, and he has written on the Japanese automobile industry as well as other subjects.

Parking will be available in the C4 Lot and the Grace Street Parking Deck. Please contact Dr. Yongguang Hu (hu2yx@jmu.edu) or Dr. Michael Seth (sethmj@jmu.edu) with any event questions. This event was organized by the Asian Studies Program and sponsored by the Office of Cross Disciplinary Studies and Diversity Engagement.

Optional Practical Training is available for F-1 students who would like to legally work here in the U.S. in a field related to their major. This session will give you details on the application process needed to obtain work authorization.

OPT applications can be filed with USCIS 90 days prior to program completion or within the 60 day grace period following program completion. Our office strongly recommends applying before completing your program because applications can take 60 to 90 days to be approved by USCIS.

We start with open-to-all pitches on Friday evening. Teams come together around the best ideas and spend the weekend in market research and product development. We end on Sunday evening in front of the judges, but everyone wins the valuable feedback.

BizBlitz is hosted by the Shenandoah Valley Innovation Coalition and local partners. BizBlitz 2015 will be facilitated by Nick Such, entrepreneur and engineer.

It's time to go bowling! Come out with your conversation partner to try your hand at bowling. It's sure to be smashing good time with loads of laughs. Price is $10 which includes shoes and bowling for two hours.

Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) is a one-day math and science conference for girls in grades 6-10. The girls participate in exciting, hands-on workshops organized by JMU faculty, attend science presentations and demonstrations, and interact with JMU students who are studying math and science. The goals of the conference are to stimulate the participants' interest in math and science through these hands-on activities, to provide them with female scientist role models, and to foster awareness of opportunities in math and science-related careers.

For more information and registration instructions please visit the EYH page.

March 23:
Disability Awareness Week 2015:
Mark your calendars! Disability Awareness Week (DAW) 2015 is coming! We have many great events planned and can't wait to share them with all of you. We hope to see you there!
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March 23:
End of Add/Drop period for 2nd block:
W grade and tuition charges will apply after this date.
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Writers' Lockdowns encourage faculty writers to dive into projects with concentrated time and effort. Held on Monday afternoons and Friday mornings, these mini-lockdowns will help create a regular writing pattern during the academic year. Peace of mind provided -- faculty writers provide the words. Coffee is available for purchase at Starbucks.

Note: Consultations must be requested in advance by emailing cfi@jmu.edu.

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following faculty community outcomes:

Practicing the integration of writing as aspect of career

Advancing writing projects, and

Increasing a sense of belonging to a writing community

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following scholarship area outcome:

From 4-5pm join us in Madison Union (Taylor 305) to hear from a speaker from the new nonprofit in Harrisonburg, New Creations! The topic for the night: Advocacy for the Eradication of Human Trafficking.

Come out to Clementine and watch your colleagues and community friends engage in our second "Ethics Slam," a lively and interactive evening of discussing and debating ethical issues of global, national, and local interest. Teams will present their arguments on two to three different ethical issues and judges will decide the most effective arguments in pursuit of the coveted "philospher's hat."

Workshop Description: Make a difference in your office's environmental impact! Part of the Administrative Assistant Certificate Program, this workshop will focus on "green" best practices for assistants. Bring your ideas, learn from the experience of others, and obtain tools from JMU's Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability to support your efforts.

Become a Safe Zone member, and help us make a difference on JMU’s campus.

Safe Zone JMU was proposed in the 1996-97 academic year and became operational the following year. It was initially funded by grants from the Commission on Community ($500) and the Shenandoah Valley Gay and Lesbian Alliance ($250). Safe Zone offers:

• Individuals interested in learning more about the Safe Zone program attend a workshop - 2 or 3 are offered every semester. [The session is required if one wishes to participate in the program.]

• Individuals sign a "contract" for confidentiality purposes when they decide to become a participant in Safe Zone and they're given a Safe Zone sticker to place at their work station or on their door.

• Currently there are over 300 participants consisting of faculty, staff, and students.

• Three Coordinators in conjunction with a Madison Equality student representative coordinate and supervise the training sessions, events, and the listserv.

• Additional resources, information, updates, and requests are available on the Safe Zone website and are distributed on the closed Safe Zone listserv maintained by one of the coordinators.

Members of the JMU community who participate in the Safe Zone Program:

Believe that our campus is enriched by the diversity of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex people.

Are aware of the presence of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex students and colleagues and are willing to engage them in genuine dialogue and interaction.

Workshop Description: Do you have questions about retirement? If so, this session will help answer some of those. Although this program is open to anyone, it will be most helpful to those who are 50 years of age or older or are within 5 years of retirement. This program is designed to be a comprehensive introduction to important issues and concepts that every pre-retiree should become familiar with.

JMU Dietetics Professor Virginia Quick, PhD, RD, presents "What's Eating You?" 6pm, March 24, in HHS 1302. In this presentation you will learn the skinny on the current research surrounding body image and disordered eating among young adults. This was rescheduled from Feb 17 due to inclement weather.

Location: All sessions except Session 4 will be held in the Wine Price Building on the 3rd Floor. Session 4 will meet in JMAC4, IT Training Center

Session: 3 of 5

Workshop Description: The barrage of information coming at us from multiple sources (e.g., texts, email, tweets, blogs, and alerts), coupled with the demands of our careers, are overwhelming and distracting. The sheer volume of information threatens our ability to think clearly and make wise decisions about what’s important. If we react to these stimuli without clear discernment, we fail to accomplish the goals that matter most in our professional and personal lives.

FranklinCovey’s The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity solution inspires participants to apply a process that will dramatically increase their ability to achieve life’s most important outcomes. Supported by science and years of experience, this solution not only produces a measurable increase in productivity, but also provides a renewed sense of engagement and accomplishment.

“Extraordinary productivity is not about doing more. In fact, it’s about doing less. Most of us try to do too much, and as a result we give less than our best and finest effort to those few things that really matter.” ~ The 5 Choices to Extraordinary productivity

This Multi-Session workshop will include:

Choice 1: Act on the Important
After this section, participants will use common language and skill-set for determining the difference between important, less important, and unimportant investments of time and energy.

Choice 2: Go for the Extraordinary
After this section, participants will be able to:

Redefine their key roles as transformational rather than functional, an essential condition for achieving extraordinary productivity.

Set goals to ensure fulfillment of their key roles.

Choice 3: Schedule the Big Rocks

Choice 4: Rule Your Technology
After this section, participants will be able to:

Align their technological tools – computer, smartphone, etc. – into one system to serve their productivity needs.

March 25:
Tea Time:
Tea Time is every Wednesday during semester from 2-2:45PM in Roop 103. Please join faculty and students in social time. BYO mug if you have one.
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March 25:
MVS: Riane Eisler:

Madison Union Ballroom

The Office of the President, in conjunction with the Madison Institutes of JMU's Outreach and Engagement, welcomes Dr. Riane Eisler. Dr. Eisler is President of the Center for Partnership Studies and internationally known as a systems scientist, attorney working for the human rights of women and children, and author of groundbreaking books such as The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 26 foreign editions, and The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics. Dr. Eisler has received many honors, including honorary PhDs and peace and human rights awards.

Dr. Eisler will be this spring's second speaker in the Madison Vision Series.

March 25:
Economics Speaker Series: Carol Graham: Wednesday, March 25, 2015 | 4:00 p.m. | Godwin Hall, Room 382: The College of Business welcomes guest speaker, Carol Graham from Brookings Institution. Graham will be giving a speech entitled: "The Pursuit of Happiness in the U.S. Compared to Other Countries: Inequality, Agency, Optimism and Life Chances."
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March 25:
Special Collections Speaker Series:

4-5 p.m.
Room 301, Carrier Library

Emily Hancock, a poet and letterpress printing at St Brigid Press, presents “A Life in Letters: Traditional Printing in the 21st Century.”

Sponsored by Special Collections of JMU Libraries and Educational Technologies. Free.

A homage to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the creator of the magical realism in Spanish literature. Macondo's choreography by Ana Ines King received the award as best national choreography in Colombia, S.A. A performing arts interpretation based on the novel "Cien Años de Soledad" ("One Hundred Years of Solitude").

Student abstracts will be due on Wednesday, March 4 (the Wednesday before spring break). We will send out another email within the next week with more details and a link to the abstract submission form. Note that all research-active students are invited to present their work (poster or oral presentation), but they should check with their research advisor before submitting.

We will also be collecting images (photos, spectra, microscope images, structures, etc.) of your research to be used in the abstract book cover collage.

Workshop Description: The word “empower” means to give power or authority, to authorize, to enable or permit. Even when the team members are motivated by the team’s goals, they become unmotivated if they cannot participate in important decisions regarding how the team achieves those goals, especially if they are expected to carry out those decisions. A facilitative team leader can facilitate team members to set the team’s goals, lay out plans to achieve those goals, make important decisions along the way, assign roles and responsibilities, solve problems, and evaluate the progress of the team.

In this session participants will:

Learn the difference between a facilitator and a presenter.

Learn how to facilitate meetings with 100% participation.

Learn how to facilitate when you are not the one in charge.

Practice brainstorming then clarify, discuss and organize the ideas generated.

Miss Israel Linor Abargil was abducted, stabbed, and raped in Milan, Italy, at age 18. She had to represent her country in the Miss World competition only six weeks later. When to her shock she was crowned the winner, she vowed to do something about rape. The film follows her from the rape, to her crowning and through her crusade to fight for justice and break the silence. During her travels to speak out and meet with other rape victims, her own trauma begins to resurface. Her serial rapist becomes eligible for parole, and she has to hunt down his previous victims in order to help keep him behind bars. The film explores the trauma of sexual assault through one young woman’s journey from teenage rape victim to Miss World to empowered lawyer and activist.

Writers' Lockdowns encourage faculty writers to dive into projects with concentrated time and effort. Held on Monday afternoons and Friday mornings, these mini-lockdowns will help create a regular writing pattern during the academic year. Peace of mind provided -- faculty writers provide the words. Coffee is available for purchase at Starbucks.

Note: Consultations must be requested in advance by emailing cfi@jmu.edu.

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following faculty community outcomes:

Practicing the integration of writing as aspect of career

Advancing writing projects, and

Increasing a sense of belonging to a writing community

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following scholarship area outcome:

Workshop Description: "Getting Your Financial Ducks in a Row," this workshop is designed to help you understand and evaluate your values and behaviors as they pertain to spending and budgeting; develop an effective personal budget to assist you in meeting your goals; learn methods to debt reduction; understand investing fundamentals; design effective strategies to meet your investment objectives, take appropriate risks, and understand the financial tools available to you both inside and outside of JMU.

Madison Business Network is delighted to offer a two-part series in developing and delivering proposals for classes, programs, departmental or center plans, and even startups that are innovative and distinctive. The Friday, January 16 training was so successful that we are repeating the training session by popular demand. Everyone from both sessions is invited to attend Part II to present their pitches to recruit partners, request resources, or find customers.

The goal of Madison Business Network is to encourage cross-disciplinary collaborations in entrepreneurship, innovation, business development, job creation and career mentoring across and beyond the campus of James Madison University.

Being an ethical leader sometimes means having to take actions that are inconvenient and unpopular, but an ethical leader is always one who sees the interconnectedness of individuals, cultures, experiences and passions by implementing multidisciplinary solutions to address complex problems. An ethical leader thinks outside of the box, and relies on others to obtain different perspectives and solutions by trusting and empowering them.

Are you interested in leadership issues? Do you want to connect with globally-minded students from around the world who attend other schools? Do you want to learn? Do you to have fun? Go to ISLC’s webpage to learn more about it and make sure to talk to Thomas Lavenir to register and/or to obtain more information.

Our monthly star parties is the public's opportunity to come on campus, look through our telescopes, and perhaps see our Moon, Jupiter and its 4 Galilean moons, Saturn and its majestic rings, binary stars and oh so much more!

John C. Wells Planetarium Director and staff will be on hand to answer your cosmic questions and provide impromptu live, star talks highlighting the Valley sky! While our skies are light-polluted, we will show you objects through our telescope that you cannot see with the unaided eye.

Star parties will be held the last Friday of every month, unless otherwise noted below, during the JMU academic year, from September thru to the end of April, at JMU's Astronomy Park located in the meadow behind the physics and astronomy building on the JMU campus east of Interstate 81. Saturdays will serve as inclement weather make-up days. Telescopes will be set-up and available for visitors to use 1 hour after sunset.

Upcoming Dates 2015

Friday, March 27

Friday, April 24

NO star parties in May/June/July/August (late sunset times)

Notice of Postponements

If an event must be postponed due to weather, a notice will be posted by 4 p.m. the day of the event on the planetarium homepage, on Facebook and on Twitter. Saturdays will serve as back-up dates.

Writers' Lockdowns encourage faculty writers to dive into projects with concentrated time and effort. Held on Monday afternoons and Friday mornings, these mini-lockdowns will help create a regular writing pattern during the academic year. Peace of mind provided -- faculty writers provide the words. Coffee is available for purchase at Starbucks.

Note: Consultations must be requested in advance by emailing cfi@jmu.edu.

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following faculty community outcomes:

Practicing the integration of writing as aspect of career

Advancing writing projects, and

Increasing a sense of belonging to a writing community

Faculty participants will make progress toward the following scholarship area outcome:

Workshop Description: Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of the Registrar's Office is like? Or maybe you think you already know? Take this opportunity to raise your level of knowledge about student and faculty communications with the Registrar. In this session participants will gain an understanding of what happens in the Registrar's Office including the varied grade processes, course substitution and waiver, transfer credit permission, and major/minor changes. FERPA, and the Privacy Act.

Workshop Description: “I want to engage my audience,” is what most who have audiences are expressing. Many people in your audience are tired - at least a third of them just don’t get enough sleep. If not tired, they are used to being continuously engaged by modern technologies: smart phones, Netflix, and social media. Part of your job is to help them stay awake, pay attention, participate in the discussion, and think about what you are saying. No longer will training participants accept speakers talking AT them; they want to be part of the conversation.

In this workshop, participants will:

Learn how to create a safe learning environment for workshop participants

Ongoing Attractions

Edith J. Carrier Arboretum Open daily dawn to dusk
Off University Boulevard
Contains a wide variety of trees and plants native to Virginia; call (540) 568-3194 for tours; free.

JMU Meteorite Collection Open daily
First- and second-floor hallways, Physics and Chemistry Building
Features fragments of meteoroids that survived passage through the atmosphere to fall to the earth's surface as masses of metal or stone; includes specimens from Diablo Canyon, Ariz., the Sahara Desert and the Central European Strewn Field; free.

Masks from Around the World Collection at the College of Education 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday
Lobby of War Memorial Auditorium, Memorial Hall
Featuring 50 masks, this collection was donated to the college for use by its students interested in studying the interplay between cultural ideals and masks; the collection includes masks used in performance, masks of Asia and masks of Europe; free.

JMU Mineral Museum 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday
Room 6139, Memorial Hall
The Department of Geology and Environmental Science opens its collection of over 550 crystals and gemstones from around the world to the public; for information, call (540) 568-6130; free.

JMU Libraries and Educational Technologies' Special Collections10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday and by appointment
Room 207, Carrier Library
Features manuscripts, rare books and periodicals, oral histories and other resources for study, including many acquisitions focusing on the Central Shenandoah Valley; for information, call (540) 568-3612; free.

“Dressing for Education: Carrier Library’s Diamond Jubilee 1939-2014” Exhibition Open during all library hours through spring semester 2015
Historic west wing of Carrier Library
Presented by JMU Libraries and Educational Technologies, the exhibition features artifacts, images and ephemera from Special Collections paired with items from the School of Theatre and Dance’s Historic Clothing Collection. Additional images provided by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society and JMU Facilities Management. Come experience campus fashion, technology and architecture circa 1939; free.

John C. Wells Planetarium Miller Hall
The planetarium offers full-dome shows and special events for the public; groups can schedule visits by calling (540) 568-4071; check the planetarium's website at http://www.jmu.edu/planetarium/index.shtml for the latest information; free.